This call for papers for Special Issue on Multispecies Leisure for Leisure Studies journal (full papers due 30 Sept. 2018) may be of interest… http://tinyurl.com/ycjdcjfl

The emerging multidisciplinary field of human-animal studies encourages researchers to move beyond narrow focus on human-centric practices and ways of being in the world, and to recognise that human and nonhuman beings are positioned within shared ecological, social, cultural, and political spaces. Human and non-human animals now play a supportive role in each other’s lives, contributing towards mutual wellbeing not only in work, but also in tourism, events, and leisure arenas. With some exceptions, leisure studies has been slow to embrace the ‘animal turn’ and consider how leisure actions, experiences, and landscapes are shaped through multispecies encounters between humans, other animals, birds and insects, plants, and environment. Although there is a wealth of research on human-animal interactions in cross-disciplinary literature, such as anthropology (Kulick, 2017), geography (Fox & Gee, 2017), psychology (Hallberg, 2008), and sociology (Carter & Charles, 2016), it is still considered an emerging field of critical tourism (Markwell, 2015), events (Dashper, 2017), and leisure studies (Carr, 2014), which would benefit from further exploration and focus in scholarship. This special issue of Leisure Studies will begin to address this gap by focusing on papers that consider leisure as more-than-human experiences.

We invite submissions that consider leisure with nonhuman others (e.g. dogs, horses), affecting those others (e.g. environmental concerns) and affected by the nonhuman (e.g. landscape, wildlife), by exploring the ‘contact zones’ between humans and other species. This special issue thus aims to contribute towards a greater understanding of leisure as a complex, multispecies phenomenon. We welcome contributions to this special issue from multidisciplinary and international perspectives that consider how understanding of (human) leisure experiences is enhanced through consideration of multispecies perspectives and environments. The special issue aims to illustrate the importance of the nonhuman world to analysing different leisure lifestyles and landscapes. Submissions ideally would draw upon diverse and innovative theoretical and methodological approaches.

Potential themes include, but are not limited to:

Human-animal interactions and relationships in leisure contexts

Mutual wellbeing and leisure

Companionship

Ethics and welfare

Identities and lifestyles related to non-human animals and leisure activities

Critical animal geographies in leisure frameworks

Activism

Embodiment

Family, animals, and leisure

Human-animal interactions, mental health, and leisure

Environmental landscapes of multispecies leisure

Affect and sensory dimensions of human-animal interactions in leisure contexts

Gendered narratives

Innovative methods for researching multispecies leisure

Submission Details

The deadline for manuscripts to be submitted is 30 September 2018. A typical manuscript for this journal should be 7,000-8,000 words; this limit includes tables, references, figure captions, footnotes, and endnotes.